Heuristics

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Heuristics can be defined as 'rules of thumb'. People use them cognitively to make quick judgements about the world. We as humans are faced with large amounts of information or stimuli every day, and so use heuristics to save cognitive energy. However, heuristic 'quick judgements' often lead to systematic biases, as we do not fully analyse information, rather jumping to a conclusion.

In education heuristics are used to allow students to make their own discoveries through investigation.

In computer science heuristics are a problem-solving technique in which the most appropriate of several solutions to a problem - each solution being found by different methods - is selected at each stage of the program for use in the next phase or step of the program.